This is my grandfather in my grandmother's house coat. Well, the story goes like this - My grandfather went to Cape Cod for the weekend to visit my grandmother and their 3 daughters, who were spending the week on Cape Cod, one summer long long ago. Apparently, my grandfather, somehow fell into the water and did not have a backup set of clothes. He said he had asked my grandmother to bring extra clothes for him, but she says she did not hear that request. So while his clothes were cleaned and dried, he had to sport one of my grandmother's house coats. From the picture, you can see that my grandfather was very happy to document the occasion.

I guess there are 2 morals to this story. First, make sure you communicate your requirements properly. Second, make sure that there are no pictures taken of you, that you don't want put on the internet, 50 years after the fact, by your crazy grandchild. Of course, my grandfather was a big ham and being in advertising and a commercial artist, I'm sure he would love the thought of getting so much exposure (so to speak).

So how does this relate to software development? Let's see how I can stretch this.... You need to understand your development requirements and you also need to communicate them properly to the team and make sure they don't get lost in the shuffle of hectic software development cycles or vacations to Cape Cod..

In this demo, you will see how the integration between IBM® Rational® Requirements Composer and Rational Team Concert highlights the capabilities that ensure project deliverables stay aligned to current business goals and requirements. Specifically, see examples of how to create a link from a requirement in a vision document artifact in Rational Requirements Composer to the work item stored in Rational Team Concert. Then see how to use filters to query across all the products on the Jazz platform. These capabilities help reduce project risk, reduce rework, and increase productivity.

If you think how small our world is and how enormous the task is to create a smarter planet, we really have to be smart about creating a smarter planet.

There is so much data that could be collected to help us understand the world better, in terms of health, trends in the environment, population growth and so on. For example, If all the doctors working on a cure for cancer had access to all the same information, those great minds could collectively work smarter and faster, and might just find a cure in our lifetime. But to help those doctors, the IT professionals need to create the software, that will provide the infrastructure, to collect and connect all the data.

To get an idea of just some surface data, that could go so much deeper, check out the

And for smart tools to help create a smarter plantet, check out this Optim demo thatshows how the staff at one fictional organization, the Great Outdoors Company, takes advantage of Optim solutions. Watch how this company gains more value from their business-critical Java applications by being able to: Accelerate problem determination for a misbehaving application; Accelerate performance of an existing application proactively, while at the same time improving stability and security; Accelerate development for a new application by improving productivity, reducing coding errors, and building in performance right from the start.

"There is no particular mystery in animation...it's really very simple, and like anything that is simple, it is about the hardest thing in the world to do. "Bill Tytla at the Walt Disney Studio, June 28, 1937.

As you know, the options on creating animation have changed quite significantly since the 1930's. What started out as a series of frames created by artists, which are then combined into a film, has since grown into the option of computer animation. The art of creating moving images with computers has even changed significantly since it's conception. Have you seen the movie Avatar? The computer animation in this movie has passed everyone's expectation.

Marc Mohan says in his article Avatar and the state of the animation art , "The combination of cutting-edge 3-D cinematography and revolutionary motion-capture techniques creates what they call in the video-game world an immersive environment. It's a shoo-in for a number of technical Academy Awards"

He goes on to say "the range of possibilities that can be explored using animation has expanded so much in recent years that the concept of a film like "Avatar" contending for such a prize seems, if not likely in the moment, then inevitable somewhere down the line." As we can see from this movie, that animation has had it's own revolution since the early years of Disney. Computer software has had many revolutions of improvement and right now we are living in one.... The "Smarter Planet revolution", software to help make this a greener and more sustainable planet. I'm excited to be part of it.

Starting in the United States and Canada, IBM clients will be able move forward with their test environments using the IBM cloud. The IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud offering provides visibility, flexibility, speed and cost efficiencies.

The cool thing is that the cloud environment is multi-vendor and includes support for Linux, and Java and J2EE, and allows clients to work with their own images as well as images from IBM. Another big plus for you developers, who use Rational development tools or are interested in using them, there is the complementary - Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing - this includes custom image development and services for collection of Rational products and capabilities.

In addition to all this coolness, IBM offers a private development and test cloud option for those of you who want the benefits of cloud but need enhanced security.

Get a brief overview on how IBM CloudBurst can get you started quickly on Cloud computing. IBM CloudBurst is a family of built-for-purpose, workload-specific Cloud computing packages that provide IT executives with the capabilities required for a dynamic infrastructure. It provides service management which enables simplified use of scalable computing resources to the end user and IT administrative community. IBM CloudBurst is a quick-start to cloud computing. Simply roll it into your data center to quickly see the benefits of Cloud computing.

The JRules Business Rule Management System helps create a smarter planet

BRMS or Business Rule Management System (BRMS) is a software system used to define, deploy, execute, monitor and maintain the variety and complexity of decision logic that is used by operational systems within an organization or enterprise. This logic is also referred to as business rules. It includes policies, requirements, and conditional statements, that are used to determine the tactical actions that take place in applications and systems.

-Tools, allowing both technical developers and business experts to define and manage decision logic

-A runtime environment, allowing applications to invoke decision logic managed within the BRMS and execute it using a business rules engine

As IBM continues to help organizations and enterprises build a smarter planet through software, the WebSphere ILOG JRules BRMS family can't go unnoticed as part of the smarter planet software solutions. It is designed for easy, safe and reliable management of decision logic that drives business systems. It is also designed to fit a wide range of enterprise architectures, it empowers both LOB and IT teams, and facilitates communication and collaboration between all rule management stakeholders. In addition, JRules BRMS accelerates time-to-market and lowers total cost of ownership through four key items:

-Collaborative rule management for business teams

-Comprehensive application development and deployment for IT teams

-Superior decision governance for business and IT users

-Robust, scalable and managed rule execution

Lowering cost of ownership, improving communication within teams and accelerating time to market are key items of creating a smarter planet through software!

Check out these two JRules demos to get more information on it's capabilities.

Learn how the WebSphere ILOG JRules Business Rules Management System (JRules BRMS) can automate decision making for data validation, eligibility and pricing in a real-world scenario. This demo shows how JRules BRMS allows organizations to gain a competitive advantage by adapting business systems to evolve with changing business policies and decisions.

Learn how technical users can import an external object model in the WebSphere ILOG JRules Rule Studio development environment. The demo also shows how to use the imported object model to write business rules.

Are you looking to build a cloud infrastructure or develop and deploy cloud-based applications. Well have we got the event for you.

This week there will be a series of virtual events that you can attend virtually from your computer. If you can't attend live, the replays will be available soon.

Here is the agenda:April 6- Introduction to cloud computing for developers- Identity Management in the Cloud- Connecting to the Cloud - The hybrid model- Metering usage of shared computational resources in cloud-delivered solutions

April 7- Introduction to IBM Smart Business Development and Test in the IBM Cloud- Building middleware application environments in an on-premise cloud with IBM WebSphere Cloudburst- Building multi-tenant applications with IBM middleware

April 8- Building a web site on the cloud using IBM webSphere Portal Server, IBM Lotus Web Content Management and IBM Mashup Center- Application development and deployment in the cloud with IBM WebSphere Application Server and Rational Developer- Prototyping and developing database applications in the cloud

Check out how IBM WebSphere ILOG JRules allows you to create a Business Object Model from a native COBOL data structure, how to then create rules in JRules’ Rule Studio, and how those rules are used to generate a COBOL Copybook. These same rules can also be deployed to Java and SOA-based business systems, providing the ability to re-use rules across the enterprise and to facilitate their maintenance as they evolve over time.

In this demo, you will see how to:

Create a New Rule ProjectDisable BOM-to-XOM CheckingCreate a BOM from a COBOL CopybookImplement BOM MethodsWrite Business RulesCreate a RuleflowGenerate the COBOL Code

Caffeine alone won't get your Android applications to market faster. You need to arm your developers with the right tools. Android applications can be easily developed in a collaborative model and test driven environment. See how IBM Rational can automate collaboration, team coordination, change management and status visibility with IBM Rational Team Concert while you visually design, develop, and debug an Android applications with IBM Rational Rhapsody.

The integration features for CCMDB in WSRR version 7 are intended to:- Provide demographic configurations information for enhanced serviceinfrastructure visualization. (and to)- Enable SOA teams to involve the operations team for making governancedecisions.

A Service Oriented Architecture typically spans across multiple phases like ServiceDevelopment, Service Deployment and Service Management. Each phase needs aregistry and repository optimized to that specific phase and the ability to shareinformation and communicate with other registries and repositories. Across the SOAlifecycle, IBM’s registry and repository offerings provide federated governancecapabilities.

The integration of WSRR with CCMDB enables federation of service related meta-dataassociated with Service Deployment and Service Management.

Tivoli CCMDB contains configuration information relevant to IT Service Managementtasks, like:- Application and server topologies,- Relationships and references among logical and physical deployment units- Meta data relating to specific aspects of configuration and management- Automated Service Management processes- Discovery of the hosting infrastructure- (at the same time) WSRR manages service related information for deployment and runtime operations of services.

Meta-data associated to a Service object in deployment lifecycle can be linked with theConfiguration object in the management lifecycle of a Service in SOA environments.

This demo shows how to set up the integration of WebSphere Service Registry and Repository with Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database through simple steps. It gives an overview of how this integration provides demographic information of services and involves operations professionals who make governance decisions in service oriented architectures.

Test and simulate rules using WebSphere ILOG Business Rules Management System

Managers responsible for policy making in decision-rich enterprises have benefited enormously from information technology. But as the pace of change has increased, and the reach of automation has been extended, traditional software applications have been unable to deliver the flexibility and agility required by most businesses.

A business rule management system (BRMS) enables organizational policies – and the operational decisions associated with those policies – to be defined, deployed, monitored and maintained separately from core application code. By externalizing business rules and providing tools to manage them, a BRMS allows business experts to define and maintain the decisions that guide systems behavior, reducing the amount of time and effort required to update production systems, and increasing the organization’s ability to respond to changes in the business environment.

BRMS solutions automate policies in custom and composite business applications. They lower application maintenance costs, facilitate more accurate and consistent business policy implementation across applications, and improve collaboration between your business and IT departments.

In this demo, learn how WebSphere ILOG Business Rules Management System allows organizations to easily adapt business rules while ensuring compliance with policy requirements and analyzing the business impact of changes against key performance indicators. This demo uses an insurance industry scenario to show how the WebSphere ILOG BRMS allows business users to easily handle testing and simulation of rule changes from within a collaborative, Web-based environment.

Developers can use JViews Enterprise to add a variety of rich, interactive Java visualization displays—including diagrams, dashboards, maps, charts and schedules— to desktop and Ajax-enhanced Web user interfaces. This reduces development time and risk, while delivering a superior user experience.

- Diagrams, used to show objects and their interconnections. Typical uses include flowcharts, organization charts, network topologies, and process modelers. View diagram samples.- Dashboards, which are unified collections of individual display objects (for example, charts, gauges, and maps) that graphically convey current business metrics to the user. In addition to business dashboards, process control dashboards, which show the status of physical equipment, are also supported. View dashboard samples.- Maps show where assets are physically located. Assets are often tied to underlying system data, and may change position or shape to reflect current status. View a map sample.- Charts are a classic display, used to depict a series of data points. They can be used to show both historical data as well as real-time values. View sample charts.- Schedules are a specialized types of chart display used to show how business resources are allocated over time. View a schedule sample.

It is all part of creating a smarter planet with smart development tools

This just out! Spread the word and check out the Rational Focal Point Demo. It's all part of creating a smarter planet through software!

IBM technology drives the Chevrolet Volt

With help from Rational, General Motors is transforming its organization and the way it develops and delivers cars.GM engineers used Rational solutions to develop critical electronic controls for the Volt's innovative battery system, electric drive unit, and cabin electronics. The vehicle's unique propulsion system required the design of an unprecedented "system of systems," centered on software that seamlessly integrates the Volt's battery pack with its electric drive system. IBM Rational software solutions were also used to help GM engineers model the interactions of the Volt's embedded systems, helping to increase the quality and efficiency. To promote collaboration between global engineering teams, IBM is helping GM standardize their vehicle design on fewer software tools and a common design process, as well as helping them manage change throughout the product development process.The result of GM's investment in solutions from IBM Rational? Accelerated response to consumer demands and compression of the time it takes to develop a new vehicle, from the auto industry average of five to 10 years, or longer, to 29 months!

Learn how IBM Rational Focal Point helps organizations achieve their overall company goals. Project portfolio management can be described as methods for analyzing and collectively managing a group of current or proposed projects based on numerous key characteristics. This demo explains how Rational Focal Point provides visibility into each project's total expected cost, consumption of resources, expected timeline, benefits to be realized, and relationship or inter-dependencies with other projects in the portfolio.

developerWorks demos help you discover what a product has to offer ranging from quick product walkthroughs, from installation and setup, and real-world scenarios. Watch and learn step by step and get tips and techniques before trying it yourself.

Here are the top 10 demos for 2010, that your colleagues have found very interesting. It is all part of building the skills to create a smarter planet, through software.